Louis C. Hickman, an early president (1888) of the T-Square Club in Philadelphia, attended classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and further studied architecture in the T-Square Club atelier. His practical apprenticeship was served with Benjamin Linfoot and T. P. Chandler, and he launched his own firm in 1890/91. Although he designed a number of residences in the Philadelphia area, his best known projects are alterations to such Philadelphia landmarks as the Merchants Exchange, originally a William Strickland design, and the William F. Potts & Son Building at 1216-28 Cherry Street, both in 1902. In addition, he collaborated with Otto Frotscher on Temple Keneseth Israel, at one time the Temple University Law School, now demolished, at 1715 North Broad Street (1892). Hickman's career is further distinguished because he employed Julian Abele, the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's program in architecture, while Abele was still an undergraduate.

Hickman's own prowess as an architectural renderer is substantiated by the T-Square Club, which awarded him the year's record for competition winners in 1888 and sent his work to Chicago for the Columbian Exposition of 1893.